The flu season for computers

I’m not sure what it is about this time of the year, but it seems like everyone I know is having computer trouble. The bug seems to have visited Al(bert Einstein, my Toshiba laptop, the replacement for Sid[dartha], my old Dell); unlike most of my friends, however, I don’t have the resources to replace Al.

What’s even more troubling for me is that today is the four month-iversary, to the day, that I bought Al. He’s one of the cheaper - perhaps cheapest - models that they had at Best Buy when I went in with my loan check, a Satellite M105, but I’ve adored him up until about a week ago. Inexplicably, the screen is on the fritz, with faint - or sometimes bright - white lines alternating all the way across the screen every other pixel, and for a few horrifying minutes tonight the screen went into a dizzying, convoluted array of stripes and rectangles and nothing that should have been visible… was. Big C and I were talking a while ago, and we shamefully questioned whether or not we would have been better off just buying a new Dell, because their customer service - at least under the extended, smash-it-to-bits-with-a-hammer-and-we’ll-still-fix-it warranty - was flawless. I have a one year “limited” warranty with Toshiba, and a quick googling revealed that they’re generally unwilling to replace the screen. But, tomorrow - on Christmas Eve, of all days to try to contact Tech Support - I’ll call them and see what they can do. If they won’t help, at least I have the super-whammo warranty with Best Buy, although they’ll only replace on screen over my three year warranty and I’m more than a little worried that this will happen again before I can afford a laptop. Which will be, er, approximately the time I complete my Ph.D. In around five or six years, then?

Oy. I thought getting a Toshiba would be a step up, but so far I’ve been pretty disappointed.